Oak Ridge Boys prepared to fill Palace Theatre with holiday cheer

The audience will get a bargain when the Oak Ridge Boys return to Greensburg for their “Down Home Christmas” show.

“It’s two shows for the price of one,” says bass singer Richard Sterban of the Dec. 6 date at The Palace Theatre. “At the start of the show, we do about 40 minutes of our regular music. Then we cover every aspect of Christmas.”

And rest assured, the play list includes the Billboard chart-topping, platinum- selling hit that’s been the country quartet’s signature song since its 1981 release.

“Yes, we still do ‘Elvira,’” Sterban says. “That’s the rule — the Oak Ridge Boys must do ‘Elvira.’”

The group — including lead vocalist Duane Allen, baritone William Lee Golden and tenor Joe Bonsall — has been spreading cheer across the country for 30 years with its annual Christmas tour. This year’s tour brings with it songs from the new album of the same name.

The album features the well-loved “Silent Night,” along with new songs like “Don’t Go Pullin’ on Santa Claus’ Beard,” written by Americana singer/songwriter Anderson East, and “South Alabama Christmas,” written by country singer Jamey Johnson.

Favorite song

It also includes “Amazing Grace,” which Sterban acknowledges is not a traditional Christmas song — but there’s a story behind the choice.

It goes back to 1983, when the Oak Ridge Boys were invited by President Ronald Reagan to sing on the White House lawn for a congressional picnic.

“They were there to eat barbecue and listen to country music,” Sterban says. “We were doing a sound check when this tall gentleman came walking across the lawn and climbed up on stage.”

It was Vice President George H.W. Bush.

“He said he couldn’t be at the show, ‘But I’m a big fan, could you play me a few songs?’ ” Sterban says. “We realized he was really familiar with our music, because he was asking for what the kids would call the deep cuts.”

That led to a lasting friendship, with the Oaks and their wives spending time at the Bush family retreat in Kennebunkport, Maine, where they would do private concerts for the Bushes and their neighbors — including the president’s favorite song, “Amazing Grace,” which Bush also requested they sing at his funeral.

“What a tremendous honor that was. Hardly a day goes by that someone doesn’t bring that up,” Sterban says. “Our record label asked us to include ‘Amazing Grace’ in our Christmas album and to recreate it as we did it in the church.”

‘Down-homey’

The group was founded in the 1940s as the Southern gospel Oak Ridge Quartet, with the name change coming in the 1960s. Golden and Allen joined the group during that decade, with Sterban and Bonsall coming on board in the ’70s.

Sterban says the Country Music Hall of Famers have such an extensive song catalog that “we pride ourselves in never doing the same show twice.”

Bonsall keeps a set list from every concert, which they tweak before returning to a city for another show, Sterban says.

“The Christmas show is the exception to the rule,” he says. “Once we lock it in, we pretty much do the same show for the whole tour.”

Part of the program is the arrival of Santa Claus.

“We sing songs for him and to him, and we take time for Santa to greet every kid in the audience,” he says.

Then comes the “rocking chair segment,” which Sterban says is “Very down- homey. Each member talks about his Christmas memories and the meaning of the holiday, and we sing some traditional carols.

“Then we close it out with a series of songs that talk about the true meaning of Christmas, and we all know that’s the birth of Jesus,” he says. “We end on a very sacred, spiritual note.”